idol

noun

Simple meaning

A cultural icon, or usually popular person.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

eyeduhl

Say the bold part a little louder.

US device voice

IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈaɪdəl

This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.

IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

noun

A cultural icon, or especially popular person.
A graven image or representation of anything that is revered, or believed to convey spiritual power.
Asiaoriginally Japan
A popular entertainer, usually young, captivating and attractive, and often female, with an image of being close to fans.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty: B1 · Intermediate (estimated)
Frequency: Moderately Common
Typical Use: General and technical use

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: A graven image or representation of anything that is revered, or believed to convey spiritual power.

Used this way, idol is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.

Emotional tone: Neutral
Formality: Neutral
Intensity: Not strongly marked
How common: Moderately common
Connotation: Matter-of-fact
Usage feel: Neutral and straightforward

Nearby words

matinee idol , rarer, so it draws attention

Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.

Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

idol worshipmatinee idolpopular idolgreat idolnew idolstone idol

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Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Compound terms

Established multiword terms.

idol worshipnounCompound term
The worship of idols.
idol worshipernounCompound term
A person who worships idols.
matinee idolnounCompound term
Someone who is adored blindly and excessively.

Related words

Connected by subject or meaning, not by word formation.

idolatrynounRelated term
The worship of idols.

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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.